Reality Sandwich
for John Hope Franklin
[2 January 1915 – 25 March 2009]

i.
they were building a church
and knew it not

hammering a cross together
hammering hands and feet

three crosses like scaffolding

bodies taken off them,
when these were taken down
the church began to rise

out of the earth and off the earth

rising ever since
cathedrals and temples of worship
around the globe

no end ever to Mass being said

ii.
successful or unsuccessful
with money or without
with or without fame and fortune

in about the same number of years
you are as old
as moldy bread
as bread that’s a month old

but a few choices other than
to be disposed of, remaining

rich or not, with fame or without

famous persons, in the limelight
we watch fad away

we watch wrinkle like leaves
we watch drop

when fall rolls around


© Obediah Michael smith, 2009
Written on Wednesday,
between 7:30 p.m. and 10:55 p.m.,
April 8, 2009.